80 STEVENSON— INTERRELATIONS OF THE FOSSIL FUELS. 



recognized by their bark, the wood having decayed. Near Ely, he 

 found a forest of yews, which penetrated the underclay into a thin 

 layer of sand, in which their roots were spread out horizontally ; 

 thence the stems passed upward into the peat. In another fen, 

 where the lowest peat is fetid and is known as "bears' muck," he 

 saw a forest of oaks wnth roots extending into the Kimmeridge 

 Clay below. The stumps, broken off usually at 3 feet from the 

 roots, are associated with the prostrate stems. 



Lorie^*"' cites Belpaire pere to the eft'ect that in Zeeland trees 

 rooted in the subsoil occur frequently in the peat. In discussing the 

 conditions within an area of 1,400 square miles in Holland, Lorie 

 says one finds there one or more peat beds covered with a greater 

 or less thickness of sediment; these are autochthonous and contain 

 stems of trees rooted in the subsoil. He has described a fossil forest 

 near Fochtelos in the great Hochmoor of Smilde, Holland. For- 

 merly, one saw there only a marshy heath ; but the surface was lowered 

 by drainage and by cultivation of buckwheat, so that the forest 

 became visible. The trees are oaks with some aspens. The greater 

 proportion of them have been broken oft" near the surface, probably 

 after death, and the stems lie usually in a southwest to northeast 

 direction. Those examined by Lorie appeared to be rooted in the 

 peat but very near the bottom ; but his guide maintained that all the 

 fully exposed stumps seen by him were rooted in the subsoil. 



Sections published in works on the Scandinavian swamps show 

 the frequency of trees in the lower part of peat deposits, rooted in 

 the underclay. A^on Post"' has published a photograph of the forest 

 bed in the Tarns jomoor, which had been exposed by removal of the 

 peat. 



Potonie"'^ has discussed a great moor near Stelle, which is ac- 

 cessible in dry years. At one locality he saw, underlying 0.03 meter 

 of sedge-peat, on which is one meter of sphagnum-peat, a forest 



106 J. Lorie, Arch. Mus. Teyler, II., Vol. III., 1890, pp. 424-427; II., Vol. 

 IV., 1893, p. 183. 



107 L. Von Post, " Die Torfmoore Narkes," C. R. Xllme Cong. Geol. Int., 

 Stockholm, 1912, pp. 1282, 1283. 



108 H. Potonie, " Ueber Autochthonie von Karbonkohlen-Flotzen," etc., 

 Jahrh. d. k. preuss. gcol. Landesanst, 1895, pp. 25, 26: "Die Entstehung der 

 Steinkohle," Naturw.-lV ochcnschr., II., Bd. IV., 1905, pp. 7-9. 



